


Inspired- (In Honor of the Monte Carlo Grand Prix)

by Born In Captivity- Ineligible to Release (Jashasedai)



Series: Alternate Universe - Tame Racing Drivers [22]
Category: Formula 1 RPF, motorsport - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe- Tame Racing Drivers, Historical References
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-26
Updated: 2017-05-26
Packaged: 2018-11-05 02:21:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,796
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11003973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jashasedai/pseuds/Born%20In%20Captivity-%20Ineligible%20to%20Release
Summary: In an AU where a secret species is used as Racing Drivers, some are gifted with abilities other than racing.In 1928 when a team of Track Designers gets a new assignment, they strike inspiration, and change the face of racing.





	Inspired- (In Honor of the Monte Carlo Grand Prix)

**Author's Note:**

> Reading the series notes will make everything easier to understand.

**Association Internationale des Automobile Clubs Reconnus/AIACR**  
**(Later Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile/FIA)**  
**Global Headquarters- 1928**

In the early years of the International racing community, Racing Drivers with a superior instinct for track layout were sought out and specially trained as Track Designers. The foremost of these was the bond pair Elmer Blanchard and his stallion, Eggbert. In 1928 they were given an assignment that would set a new standard for racing excellence...

 

 

Elmer came into Eggbert's room, he had a yellow piece of paper in his hand like he always did before a new assignment. Eggbert set down his pencil and leaned up. He remained sitting at the draft desk, watching his human.

He adusted his sweater, stood with his feet together, as though he was making a presentation. [We've had a telegram from the company.] He held up the telegram with a flourish. It was a shame they had never had a racing career. The journalists would have loved interviewing this man, who loved to make a show of everything. [This is going to be a big one, Eggbert, they want us to design a track outside the headquarters. US!]

As if it would not be just Eggbert doing the designing. He indulged Elmer in his belief that he had a meaningful part in the final result of the designs. Elmer insisted that his training as a lawyer smoothed the way for the circuit building.

When asked what a lawyer was, Elmer told Eggbert it was someone who made people follow the rules. What a thing. Only humans would invent lawyers, because only humans would need someone to tell them to follow the rules once they knew what the rules were. Eggbert was never entirely certain that this was not some sort of joke- a holdover from the days young Elmer had fancied himself humorous, as well as a showman. Eggbert's name was one such example of Elmer's blind stabs at humor. Because when they matched he "looked such an egg in that white helmet." Patient coaching had put an end to the terrible jokes, but the mysterious training and the name remained.

[The head stable HAS a track,] Eggbert propped an elbow on his drafting desk.

[They want a new one, bigger, closer to the stable. I brought the charts of the grounds they want to put it on.] Elmer waved a document tube at him.

Eggbert cleared off the table.

\--

[We can't DO all these things, the track will be 37 miles long. They'll run out of petrol every lap.] Elmer frowned, ruffling his short beard.

Eggbert groaned. [They want the ultimate track, the most exciting to show the Racing Drivers' skill. They want chicanes, they want hairpins, changes in elevation. It is impossible for all these things they demand to happen. We will either have a track that even an Orange would think too long, or a track that will kill everyone for difficulty, or nothing nothing nothing. It is one or the other.] He stood and began to pace and Elmer took his seat at the desk.

Elmer was down to his shirt sleeves and his pants. They had gone over every inch of the grounds FIA wanted the circuit built on, running into insurmountable obstacles every time. It was a stupid place for a circuit. The FIA wanted it to run around the edge of the crater in the mountain. Stupid. If Eggbert directed it around, where the ground was workable, it was far too long, otherwise they would be running in the mountain itself. With all the inherent problems that stone brought with it. Eggbert understood what could be done with stone, but he prefered soil, which could be controlled with a careful application of forethought.

[There is only one route.] It was already outlined in red on the topographical chart. [It will be a bad circuit. No one will want to race on it,] Eggbert pouted. [I will be ashamed to be a part of designing it,] he flicked a wad of paper off the filing cabinet. It bounced off the wall, rebounded off the leg of the desk and landed in the waste basket. [If we could just consider a bridge from here to here...] Eggbert pointed at two points of the map.

[For the last time, we're not building an 800 foot long cambered bridge. I don't even think that's possible.]. Elmer threw his hands in the air.

[What if we build up the ground?] Eggbert was getting frustrated, but he was not going to let Elmer know that. Elmer wished he would be more open, instead of trying to keep him in the dark, so they both had to pretend they didn't know he was irritated.

Louis came in. He was the man who worked with them as facilitator with the people actually building the tracks. How anyone could think this man was organised enough to design master architecture, Elmer could never figure out, but his name was on all their tracks. He set down his bag, ignoring how everything spilled out onto the work table. "How are you boys doing? This is one great piece of ground. It's the crater of an extinct volcano."

Eggbert stared at the mess Louis left on the table. He started clearing it away, sweeping bits of fluff and crumbs to the floor. He paused on a map.

[I always get lost in Monaco. She a great cities,] Louis gestured inexpertly at Eggbert. He took the map out of his hands. It was topographical, like the survey maps they were looking at for the circuit, with an overlay of the streets. He laid the map out and pointed [This building is one of the great architectural marvels.]

Eggbert's flood of amazement took Elmer aback. Why was he so excited about the Monte Carlo casino? The Racing Driver fumbled at the pen cup until it fell to the floor, and then snatched up one of the red pens. With perfect dexterity he traced an outline along the streets of the city. He marked with shorthand notations about features, track width, runoff areas as he went. He circled the hairpin and underlined it.

[What is this?] Louis asked.

[This is your circuit. Look at it. It will be great, one of the greatest circuits that could ever be,] He stroked a hand down the edge of the map, as racers did with a perfectly tuned car. He touched the place marked with the start line symbol.

Tracking the map around, Eggbert closed his eyes, finger unfailingly following the course. Until he reached the Hotel de Paris, when his finger cut back sharply and he overshot the line. He opened his eyes, put his finger on the last corner and tracked forward again, watching this time the more intense curve his finger followed, until the line merged again with the red line he'd drawn. He closed his eyes again and tracked the line, smiling with one side of his mouth when he felt the hairpin. Then he tracked down around the edge of the harbor.

He frowned when he came to the short leg of the L-shape. He looked at the map. Shook his head, started at the corner and tracked around until he stopped, unfailingly, perfectly on the finish line.

The red pen came out and he drew the enhanced curve on the map at the corner by the hotel.

Elmer frowned. Eggbert could see it. He could FEEL it.

Halfway through the short leg of the L he drew an aggressive little chicane.

Louis spoke up first. [You drew through the,] he flapped his hands meaninglessly, but made a noise, at Elmer. The last word lost.

[We have to move this building,] Eggbert explained. He crossed the building out. [Why is this building here, anyway? It interferes with the line of the street. It is as stupid as a circuit at this other place.] He gestured to the discarded map of the Circuit de Charade. [No, it will have to go!]

Elmer looked at Louis and then frowned at Eggbert. [We can't MOVE that building.]

[We have built new buildings before, the stables and garages. We can't put those, HERE, of course, but perhaps we could expand this building,] He touched the building on the other side of the street, the inside of the corner, [Into the empty space and put this interfering building's things into it. I don't know, the builders will decide.]

[This is an important building. We can't move it.]

Eggbert shook his head, obviously Elmer wasn't appreciating how important this corner was. [Come to me, self,] he said lovingly, holding his hand out for Elmer's. He pressed himself against Elmer, [Close your eyes, loved one,] he gestured with Elmer pressed to his chest, as one self. Elmer closed his eyes and Eggbert guided his fingertips to the startline. He imitated the engine of their car, softly, into Elmer's ear.

Idling, idling, sent the rush of delight as the green flag waved in his mind's eye. A burst of acceleration. The rising engine beat, the satisfaction of a perfect shift, the engine starting it's climb up the rpms again. Eggbert's voice rising to a wound out whine as he made Elmer FEEL the near 90 degree corner and the sprint towards the special curve. His voice low and reverberating at the bottom of the cycle, rising until the shift became necessary. He came to the corner.

There was a little rise, then Elmer felt the pressure the car would put on it's driver as they swung hard, left, over the smooth track where the building shouldn't be, then around to the right, towards the little pinch at the hairpin. Elmer's breath hitched and his eyes nearly fluttered open as Eggbert made him feel the corner, and then they were cutting down into the hairpin, braking hard.

The rest of the simulated run, with the inclusion of the sharp chicane near the end, kept Elmer's heartrate up high. When they reached the finish line, and he gasped his way up out of the race Eggbert had made him imagine, he opened his eyes. They glistened.

Eggbert smiled at him. 'This corner will be the most elegant of all the circuits, in all the world,' he sent, straight to Elmer's heart, Eggbert's eyes were glistening as well, 'The track will never be perfect without it. With it, it will be the most shining track in the world. We will be proud to be remembered for it.]

The man took a shuddering breath. He spoke with a broken heart. And he condemned the world to go on without even one perfect circuit.

[They won't let us rebuild the Hotel de Paris onto the front of the Monte Carlo Casino.]

**Author's Note:**

> Real People don't belong to me.
> 
> This story is fiction and is no reflection on anyone in it. The story does belong to me, as does the AU in which it is set.


End file.
